H. 3728 contains harmful provisions that seek to prevent public educators from teaching the full truth of past and present race and gender inequalities in their classrooms, subject our public educators to undue surveillance of their instruction, burden our public educators with unnecessary complaint processes, and risk the loss of a significant amount of state funding for unjustified reasons.
This bill is advancing to the Senate, and your Senator needs to hear from you! A Senate subcommittee hearing has been scheduled for this bill, and this is our last chance to tell lawmkers about the harms this bill would cause and why we oppose it.
The latest on H. 3728:
This bill was passed by the Senate in May 2023. However, the House refused to concur with the Senate's changes, meaning the bill must go to conference, where a panel of lawmakers from both chambers attempt to find a compromise version of the legislation to pass.
We oppose this bill because:
- The prohibited concepts are vague. It is impossible for teachers to know which lessons, language, or materials might be prohibited.
- H. 3728 is unnecessary. Discriminatory conduct is already prohibited by federal and state law – including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and their counterparts in South Carolina law.
- This bill creates an opportunity for school districts to be tasked with investigating educators based on frivolous and personally motivated complaints, and taking focus away from education and placing it on investigating educators instead.
In the documents section below, you'll find our guide to the State House. We've included info that's helpful for everything from where to park to how to structure your testimony to help you take action against classroom censorship.
